Manchester City’s Odd Men Out
Stephen Ireland. Poor old Stephen Ireland. After years of mischief that included pulling out of a Republic of Ireland squad and blaming his dead granny (who wasn’t dead), and dropping his shorts in celebration at the Eastlands to reveal Superman underpants, Stephen Ireland finally looked to have come good under Mark Hughes. He has barely featured under Mancini and Yaya Toure‘s signing won’t have helped his cause. Bargain Buy: 8
Roque Santa Cruz. Another Mark Hughes favourite. Sparky tussled for over a year with his old club Blackburn to nab the giant Paraguyan forward. A mixture of poor finishing and persistent injuries has
seen Santa Cruz drop down the pecking order. Even without City‘s rumoured interest in strikers Fernando Torres, Edin Dzeko, Mario Balotelli and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Roque Santa Cruz is last choice. Bargain Buy: 5
Craig Bellamy. The Welshman is an acquired taste and Roberto Mancini has yet to acquire that taste. At loggerheads throughout much of last season, despite Craig Bellamy‘s undisputed striking talents, Mancini may just feel he doesn’t need Bellamy‘s loud-mouth in the changing room no matter how well he can dance through Manchester United‘s backline. Bargain Buy: 7.5
£2 million for Ireland and Wright-Phillips? That's a bargain, Shaun.
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Manchester City do NOT have 37 players aged 22 and over that is for sure, and if we do, which 14 players did we sign yesterday that have not been made public knowledge yet?.
Even if James Milner, Mario Balotelli and Fernando Torres were to sign (latest to be linked that is why I have stated them), then
Our 25 man squad could quite easily be:
Hart, Given, Taylor (Gks)
Zabaleta, Richards, Onouha, Kompany, K Toure, Lescott, Kolarov, Garrido/Bridge (Defs)
SWP, A Johnson, Vieira, Ireland, Barry, de Jong, Milner, Y Toure, Silva (Mids)
Bellamy, Tevez, Adebayor, Torres, Robinho/Santa Cruz
Meaning we would only require to chose between Bridge & Garrido for 1 place, and Robinho & RSC for the other, with JO to leave on loan or sold.
Michael Johnson is injured until Oct/Nov, so it would be pointless to nominate him until January and then instead of Vieira.
Players under 21 or 21 on 1 Jan 10, and thus do not require registering for the 25 man squad are:
Cunningham, Boateng, Mee, Boyata, Wabarra, Trippier, Ibrahim, Weiss, Tutte, Kay, Clayton, Henshall, McDermott, Helan, Nimley, Guidetti, Balotelli & Ball (all have either played in US tour or appeared on bench before for City…or new signings, but younger than 21).
So there is no issue here at all, we might need to let 1 or possibly 2 players go if we were to sign both Milner & Torres for the 25 man squad, as Balotelli and any other kid we might sign between now and 1 Sept are part of the “unlimited” team.
Only problem could be nominated Europa Lge squad, as age is irrelevant there, they have to be nominated in a 25 man squad, and some unfortunately will miss out, but they will still play in both domestic cup comps (no registration required) and the Prem….as detailed above, selecting a 25 man squad is easy and of no concern to City at all.
GET YOUR FACTS correct, before spouting rubbish and passing it off as gospel, anybody can check Wikipiedia, but they have kids listed as part of the squad, and also the likes of Logan (released by the club, last having trials with Sheff U), Etuhu (doing time for Porridge), and Gonzalez (contract ends at begining of Jan)
I absolutly 100% agree with you!!! people need to sort there facts out and stop being jealous of an up and coming title winning team